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May Sarton
| birth_place = Wondelgem, Belgium | death_date = July | death_place = York, Maine, United States | nationality = Belgian / American | other_names = | known_for = | occupation = }} May Sarton is the pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton (May 3, 1912 – July 16, 1995), an American poet, novelist, and memoirist. Life Sarton was born in Wondelgem, Belgium. Her parents were science historian George Sarton and his wife, English artist Mabel Eleanor (Elwes). In her memoir At Seventy, Sarton reflected on how her Unitarian Universalist upbringing shaped her. In 1915, her family moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Sarton went to school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and started theatre lessons in her late teens. In 1945 she met her partner for the next 13 years, Judy Matlack, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. They separated in 1956, when Sarton's father died and Sarton moved to Nelson, New Hampshire. Honey in the Hive (1988) is about their relationship. > Sarton later moved to York, Maine. She died of breast cancer on 16 July 1995. She is buried in Nelson, New Hampshire. Margot Peters' controversial biography (1998) revealed May Sarton as a complex human being who often struggled in her interpersonal relationships. Writing Despite the quality of some of her many novels and poems, May Sarton's best and most enduring work lies undoubtedly in her journals and memoirs, particularly Plant Dreaming Deep (about her early years at Nelson, ca. 1958-68), Journal of a Solitude (1972-1973, often considered her best), The House by the Sea (1974-1976), Recovering (1978-1979) and At Seventy (1982-83). In these fragile, rambling and honest accounts of her solitary life, she deals with such issues as ageing, isolation, solitude, friendship, love and relationships, lesbianism, self-doubt, success and failure, envy, gratitude for life's simple pleasures, love of nature, spirituality and, importantly, the constant struggles of a creative life. Sarton's later journals are not of the same quality, as she endeavoured to keep writing through ill health and often with the help of a tape recorder. May Sarton often emphasized in her journals that she didn't see herself as a "lesbian" writer, but wanted to touch on what is universally human about love in all its manifestations. When publishing her novel ''Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing in 1965, she feared that writing openly about lesbianism would lead to a diminution of the previously established value of her work. "The fear of homosexuality is so great that it took courage to write Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing," she wrote in Journal of a Solitude, "to write a novel about a woman homosexual who is not a sex maniac, a drunkard, a drug-taker, or in any way repulsive, to portray a homosexual who is neither pitiable nor disgusting, without sentimentality ..." (Journal of a Solitude, 1973, pp. 90-91). Publications Poetry *''Encounter in April''. Boston: Houghton, 1937. *''Inner Landscape''. Boston: Houghton, 1939. *''The Lion and the Rose''. Boulder, CO: Rinehart, 1948. *''The Land of Silence''. Boulder, CO: Rinehart, 1953. *''In Time like Air''. Boulder, CO: Rinehart, 1958. *''Cloud, Stone, Suit, Vine''. New York: Norton, 1961. *''A Private Mythology''. New York: Norton, 1966. *''As Does New Hampshire''. New York: Richard R. Smith, 1967. *''A Grain of Mustard Seed''. New York: Norton, 1971. *''A Durable Fire''. New York: Norton, 1972. *''Collected Poems, 1930-1973''. New York: Norton, 1974. *''Selected Poems''. New York: Norton, 1978. *''Halfway to Silence''. New York: Norton, 1980. *''Letters from Maine: New poems''. New York: Norton, 1984. *''The Silence Now: New and uncollected earlier poems''. New York: Norton, 1988. *''Collected Poems, 1930-1993''. New York: Norton, 1993. *''Coming into Eighty''. New York: Norton, 1994. Play *''Underground River''. Play Club, 1947. Fiction *''The Single Hound''. Boston: Houghton, 1938. *''The Bridge of Years''. New York: Doubleday, 1946. *''Shadow of a Man''. Boulder, CO: Rinehart, 1950. *''A Shower of Summer Days''. Boulder, CO: Rinehart, 1952. *''Faithful Are the Wounds''. Boulder, CO: Rinehart, 1955. *''The Fur Person: The story of a cat''. Boulder, CO: Rinehart, 1957. *''The Birth of a Grandfather''. Boulder, CO: Rinehart, 1957. *''The Small Room''. New York: Norton, 1961. *''Mrs. Stevens Hears the Mermaids Singing''. New York: Norton, 1965 **revised edition, 1974. *''Miss Pickthorn and Mr. Hare'' (fable). New York: Norton, 1966. *''The Poet and the Donkey''. New York: Norton, 1969. *''Kinds of Love''. New York: Norton, 1970. *''As We Are Now''. New York: Norton, 1973. *''Crucial Conversations''. New York: Norton, 1975. *''A Reckoning''. New York: Norton, 1978. *''Anger''. New York: Norton, 1982. *''The Magnificent Spinster''. New York: Norton, 1985. *''The Education of Harriet Hatfield''. New York: Norton, 1989. Non-fiction *''I Knew a Phoenix: Sketches for an autobiography''. Boulder, CO: Rinehart, 1959. *''Plant Dreaming Deep'' (memoir). New York: Norton, 1968. *''A World of Light: Portraits and celebrations''. New York: Norton, 1976. *''The House by the Sea''. New York: Norton, 1977. *''Writings on Writing''. Orono, ME: Puckerbrush Press, 1980. *''May Sarton: A self-portrait'' (edited by Marita Simpson and Martha Wheelock). New York: Norton, 1986. Juvenile *''Joanna and Ulysses'' (young adult). New York: Norton, 1963. *''Punch's Secret'' (juvenile). New York: Harper, 1974. *''A Walk through the Woods'' (juvenile). New York: Harper, 1976. Collected editions *''Sarton Selected: An anthology of the journals, novels, and poems of May Sarton'' (edited & with an introduction and notes by Bradley Dudley Daziel). New York: Norton, 1992. *''May Sarton: Among the usual days: A portrait: Unpublished poems, letters, journals, and photographs'' (selected & edited by Susan Sherman). New York: Norton, 1993. *''From May Sarton's Well: Writings of May Sarton'' (selected & with photographs by Edith Royce Schade). Watsonville, CA: Papier-Mache Press, 1994. Letters and Journals *''Journal of a Solitude''. New York: Norton, 1973. *''Recovering: A journal, 1978-1979''. New York: Norton, 1980. *''At Seventy: A journal''. New York: Norton, 1984. * After the Stroke: A journal. New York: Norton, 1988. *''Endgame: A journal of the seventy-ninth year''. New York: Norton, 1992. *''Encore: A journal of the eightieth year''. New York: Norton, 1993. *''At Eighty-two: A journal''. New York: Norton, 1996. *''Selected Letters'' (edited & with introduction by Susan Sherman). (2 volumes), New York: Norton. Volume I: 1916-1954, 1997; Volume II: 1955-1995, 2002. *''Dear Juliette: Letters of May Sarton to Juliette Huxley'' (edited by Susan Sherman). New York: Norton, 1999. Edited *''Honey in the Hive: Judith Matlack, 1898-1982''. Boston, MA: Warren, 1988. *Eleanor Mabel Sarton, Letters to May. Orono, ME: Puckerbrush Press, 1986. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy the Poetry Foundation .May Sarton 1912-1995, Poetry Foundation, Apr. 14, 2012. See also *List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems * May Sarton profile & poem ("For My Mother") at the Academy of American Poets *May Sarton 1912-1995 at the Poetry Foundation ;Books *May Sarton at Amazon.com ;About * *May Sarton @ Language is a Virus. * * * May Sarton at Find a Grave Category:1912 births Category:1995 deaths Category:Flemish people Category:American people of Belgian descent Category:Lesbian writers Category:American poets Category:Deaths from breast cancer Category:American Unitarian Universalists Category:Belgian women writers Category:American women writers Category:LGBT writers from the United States Category:People from York, Maine Category:20th-century poets Category:Poets Category:20th-century women writers Category:English-language poets